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Welcome to the FileMaker Design Patterns Library.

For those of you who did not attend Ernest's session at DevCon, the mission of this site is to catalog the commonly used FileMaker design patterns, enrich our ability to understand and solve problems, and create a common language among FileMaker developers.

The idea of the site originated at PauseOnError in Portland (2010) where a standing room only crowd (and several sitting in the dry claw foot bathtub) discussed the need for a repository of FileMaker design patterns, programming standards, and naming conventions. What's a design pattern, you ask? I like Christopher Alexander's definition (as quoted in Martin Fowler's Patten's of Enterprise Application Architecture):

"Each pattern describes a problem which occurs over and over again in our environment, and then describes the core of the solution to that problem, in such a way that you can use this solution a million times over, without doing it the same way twice."

The site is in beta while we replace the sample content holder patterns with real world examples. In the coming weeks, with your help, we will be building out the catalog.

Thanks to Ernest and the Proof Team for building the site. Thanks also to the following people who helped develop the initial idea:

Alex Brophy, Andy Gaunt, Audrey Akhavan, Beatrice Beaubien, Beverly Voth, Bruce Herbach, Christopher Gauntt, Damon Casey, Dan Stein, Dan Stuchbury, Don Ingram, Doug Gardner, Eilert Sundt, Hal Gumbert, Heather McCue, Ian Jempson, Jeff Duck, Jeremy Bante, Jim Schliestett, Jonn Howell, Kevin Smith, Laramie Ericson, Martha Zink, Marti MacNeil, Michael Frankel, Molly Connolly, Nellie Korn, Oreste Schiavone, Paul Costanzo, Peter Vinogradov, Robin L. McClish, Steve Hearn, Steven H. Blackwell, Tom Fitch, Vincenzo P. Menanno, and Ward Clark.

As Ernest wrote, we invite your help and welcome your feedback!

Don Levan